A Cautionary Tale for Old Media in Business Week looks at the death of newspapers through the demise of the San Jose Mercury News. Despite the fact the author worked at the Mercury News from 1989 to 1993, the article doesn't do the story justice. And it's not very well written either. "...the Mercury News had emerged from mediocrity during the 1980s and '90s to become one of the most profitable papers in the country." What kind of mediocrity? In the same paragraph it talks about staffers winning Pulitzers in 1986 and 1989. It talks about Bob Ingle: "He didn't have the personality to persuade independent-minded publishers to build up their online businesses aggressively." Two paragraphs later: "In 1995 Ingle managed to persuade eight other companies, including Tribune, Gannett, and the New York Times, to form an alliance, grandly named New Century Network." And it fails to mention that Ingle persuaded Knight-Ridder execs to make a pre-IPO investment in Netscape. Bob Ingle, shown here with a NewsHound, not only had enormous foresight but was a pretty persuasive guy. (Photo by Thomas Broening)
That newspapers will soon be extinct has been known for many years. But newspaper companies need not be extinct. The best example of this is Thomson. The article cites Andy Grove: "...cross industry disruptions follow a predictable course: Executives ignore the challenges. Then they try to resist. Only when it's too late do they make radical changes." Replace executives with publishers and you have half of the Knight-Ridder saga. The other half was at the moment the company should have continued diversifying away from print, Tony Ridder turned his company into a pure newspaper play. Dead-wrong strategy, perfectly executed.
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